German Chancellor Merkel breaks secular taboo by saying Christians are the most persecuted

By Deacon Nick Donnelly, on November 8th, 2012

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has caused uproar by breaking the secular taboo when she said at a meeting of the German Protestant Church that’ Christianity is “the most persecuted religion worldwide.” Chancellor Merkel went on to say that ‘Germany needed to protect Christian minorities as part of its foreign policy.’ Interestingly, the Chancellor also spoke out against strict separation of church and state and said Europe was built on Christian foundations.

The anti-Catholic German Green party politician Jerzy Montag unsurprisingly described Chancellor Merkel’s comments as “mistaken” and “not very helpful”.

Human Rights Watch ignored the fact that Chancellor Merkel had specifically referred to the worldwide persecution of Christianity when it retorted that Muslims in Myanmar, and members of Falun Gong in China were persecuted.

The secular media usually impose a news blackout on reporting the persecution of Christians. “Gospel for Asia”, an organisation which aims to spread the Gospel’s message in Asia reports this week that in India alone there has been a “400% increase” in the number of assaults against Christians. This has been covered by the Italian newspaper La Stampa, but by no other news outlet. The reason for this? The anti-Christian bias, and prejudice, of many secular journalists and editors means they have more in common with the persecutors of Christians, than the Christians themselves.

Protect the Pope comment: Chancellor Merkel’s comments concur with the findings of the recent European Parliament seminar Discrimination of Christians in Europe. During the seminar is was revealed that a recent opinion poll showed that 74 per cent of those surveyed felt that Christians faced “negative discrimination” compared with people of other religious faiths. A further 60 per cent of those polled said that such discrimination was on the increase. A participant at the seminar said, “Even friendly criticism of homosexuality has led to criminal investigation.” He added, “We are not asking for special treatment, privileges or exceptions but merely the right to exercise freedom of speech.”

She’s the daughter of a Lutheran Pastor and sometimes it shows – even though she could be even more outspoken about such matters.
Many of her statements in that regard, and also on other ‘soft’ issues, are in consent with public opinion – published opinion is a different story.

And from today’s pow it looks as if she will be re-elected next year.
Much to the despair of the Greens.

“In 2010, Christians were estimated to comprise 33 percent of the world’s population. The Pew Forum study found that Christians were harassed in more countries — 130 — than any other faith group. Muslims, harassed in 117 countries, were second. And although Jews make up only about one percent of the world’s population, they are fourth on the list, harassed in 75 countries.”

I don’t doubt that Christians suffer real persecution in many countries. I don’t think the lack of reporting is part of any secular liberal conspiracy though. Newspapers like the Guardian, with impeccable liberal credentials, frequently report on religious conflicts around the world, including those where Christians are the victims.

Popular media outlets (which unfortunately includes the BBC website, although thankfully not yet its more serious broadcasting) are out to maximize readership. It’s a sad fact that “The X Factor” will always trump the deaths of Christians in Nigeria, India or elsewhere.

I think that there is a bit of a problem with muslim on Christian violence not always reported as well as it should be. But it is more a pro-muslim bias than an anti-Christian bias. There is also a bit of a tendancy for the media to shy away from highlighting the role of religion in conflicts, ironically partly due to the desire to aviod offending religious people by giving the impression that religion is a component of conflicts around the world. Mealy-mouthed terms like “loyalist” or “republican” will be familiar to you. The same happened in Kosovar where the only religious group honestly described was “the muslims” – noone called Serbian nationalist fighters “Orthodox Christian Militia” even when some of them went into battle with pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary taped to their riffle butts.

So I don’t think it is prejudice. The problem is discomfort at even acknowledging a religious aspect to conflict, partly I suspect out or what they think is respect and partly because journalists lacking their own strong belief can’t really believe that these conflicts are about religion because they can’t imagine themselves ever having religious beliefs strong enough to fight for.